On Sunday at Båstad, Sweden, in the final of the Collector Swedish Open,
the 2011 & 2013 Båstad finalist, 26 year old 7th seeded #73 (career high: #46) Johanna Larsson from Helsingborg, Sweden,
won her first WTA singles title by defeating
the 2014 Båstad champion, 25 year old 4th seeded #49 (career high: #23) Mona Barthel from Neumunster, Germany,
6-3, 7-6(2) (photo shown).

Johanna's prize is $43,000; Mona's prize is $21,400.

Johanna said: "I'm extremely happy. I think I played really well today and I tried to concentrate on taking it point by point. Mona is playing very aggressive tennis so I think my spin paid off.

"Coming into this tournament I had not won many matches. But I tried to just play my game and stick with my topspin, which is my strength out there. In the end of the match I don't know how it happened, but I won the last point, and of course that's the most important point!

"I'm just really living in the moment right now and I'm happy with this victory today. Hopefully this can pay off later in the season, but right now I am just going to enjoy my first WTA title." WTA story

Mona still leads Johanna 3-1 in career matches. Their previous meeting was in 2013 on a Deco-Turf hardcourt in the 1st round of the US Open, when Mona defeated Johanna 6-1, 6-4.

Johanna is now 1-3 in WTA singles finals; she has a 22-15 singles match record this season. Mona is now 3-2 in WTA singles finals; her singles match record in 2015 is 10-18.

Meanwhile in Romania, in the final of the Bucharest Open,
the 2015 champion at Katowice, 20 year old 7th seeded #63 (career high: #55) Anna Karolina Schmiedlova from Kosice, Slovakia,
defeated
the 2015 champion at Rio, 28 year old top seeded #19 (career high: #5) Sara Errani from Bologna, Italy,
7-6(3), 6-3 (photo shown).

Anna's prize is $43,000; Sara's prize is $21,400.

Anna said: "I still cannot believe I won, because it was a really tough match and Sara Errani is an amazing player. I knew she'd be playing really well, and I knew it would be tough to focus on each point because we would have really, really long rallies.

"After I won the first set I did everything I could to win the second set, because I couldn't imagine being able to play a third set against her. And I'm really happy I was able to close it out there." WTA story

Sara and Anna had met only once before, earlier this year on red clay in the final at Rio, when Sara defeated Anna 7-6(2), 6-1.

Anna is now 2-1 in WTA singles finals; she has a 24-16 singles match record this season. Sara is now 8-10 in WTA singles finals. Her singles match record in 2015 is 32-17.

Båstad: The main draw for Båstad has 8 seeds, with no 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers and 3 wild cards in the main draw. Qualifying (2 rounds) starts on Sunday; qualifying finals are on Monday.

Båstad Tennis Stadium Latitude: 56.434502 Longitude: 12.838769

The Collector Swedish Open (formerly the Nordic Light Open), once held at Stockholm's 1912 Olympic Stadium, was moved to Båstad in 2009. Båstad has been the site of the ATP Swedish Open since it began in 1948; the women also played there until 1990. Båstad Tennis Stadium is a few hundred yards from the beach, close to Pepe's Bodega, a local restaurant and nightclub. The stadium was rebuilt in 2002 to accommodate the Hotel Skansen underneath the seaside bleachers.

2015: On Monday, July 13 at Båstad, top seed Serena Williams played Meet the Press...

Serena said: "I had never played [Ysaline] before so I didn't know what to expect. And she had a really big serve and some really good holds. She played really well. It definitely wasn't an easy match." WTA story

n23 s2 Samantha Stosur AUS d n155 Julia Glushko ISR 6-1, 6-1 Mon

Samantha driving a forehand

n29 s3 Barbora Strycova CZE d n139 Grace Min USA 6-4, 6-2 Tue

Barbora following a backhand

Barbora said: "It was my first match on clay since Wimbledon, so it was always going to be tough. It wasn't an easy match for me. Grace was playing very well, so I had to feel my way on the clay." WTA story

Serena said: "I was having some pain in my right elbow... I felt it a little bit in my match yesterday, and then it got better, but then this morning I really couldn't hit serves, and if I'm not able to hit serves that could definitely be a problem... The main thing is that we don't want it to get worse, we obviously want it to heal." WTA story

Johanna said: "I thought I played pretty well today, and I had the match right where I wanted. I think my serve worked really well, and the conditions played to my advantage. But my serve was the key today and she actually didn't have one break point, which is nice to have in your back pocket." WTA story

Bucharest: The 32-player main draw for Bucharest has 8 seeds, with no 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers in the main draw. Qualifying (3 rounds) starts on Saturday, qualifying finals are on Monday.